Michael Lovendusky

  • Michael Lovendusky - (ACLI)
    • Dynamic Contracts - Whistling into the winds of change
    • Trade Secrets
    • Focus Groups
    • Lovendusky vs other ACLI before
  • Michael Lovendusky, association general counsel for ACLI, described the NAIC as a conflicted 137-year-old organization and a 13-year-old organization.
    • The older NAIC, he said, worked well with the insurance industry.
    • “That cooperative effort is being destroyed in ways we don’t understand,” he said, noting that the younger NAIC often fails to have discussions with the industry.
    • That results in insurance groups going on a “scavenger hunt” to seek information as to what NAIC business is conducted behind closed doors, he noted.

2008 0604 - InsuranceJournal.com - Insurers Blast Insurance Regulators as Closed to Open Dialogue, By Patricia-Anne Tom - [link]

  • Michael Lovendusky (American Council of Life Insurers -- ACLI) .... said the Unfair Trade Practices Act is the bedrock of market practices.

2001-1, Suitability Working Group - NAIC

  • r. Lovendusky said the ACLI work group discussed whether the charge should include revising the Buyer’s Guide, which was a suggested addition to the charge from the American Academy of Actuaries (Academy).
    • -- While the ACLI work group did not oppose including the Buyer’s Guide, some on the work group thought that revisions to the Buyer’s Guide might work instead of revisions to the models.
    • However, Ms. Cude pointed out that the Buyer’s Guide has a different purpose from the policy summary and that revisions to one would not take care of the other because the Buyer’s Guide is designed to be educational, while the policy summary is informational and explains a particular policy.
  • He (Michael Lovendusky - ACLI) said consumers are mostly confused about options, guarantees and riders.
    • The ACLI work group was considering asking the Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee to narrow the charge to look at only products with options, guarantees and riders, but Ms. Cude said she thinks that it is important to consider how the disclore for all products could be improved.
  • Mr. Lovendusky - ACLI ... said the ACLI work group thinks that most confusion for consumers involves complex products like Universal Life, and not Simple products like term life.

2016 0403, NAIC Proceedings - LIIIWG - Life Insurance Illustrations Working Group

  • 2017-2, NAIC Proceedings - 2017 0519 - LIAC, Life Insurance (A) Committee - NAIC
    • Michael Lovendusky (American Council of Life Insurers—ACLI) agreed with exploring having the NAIC as the destination for information on more sophisticated products.
      • He suggested that there could be a simultaneous development of a short version and a web-based tool on the NAIC website. He suggested that an outline could be developed that identifies which location the information belongs.  2017-2,  Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee Conference Call, May 19, 2017
  • 2018 1009 - NAIC - LIIIWG, Life Insurance Illustrations Working Group - [Bonk: Not in NAIC Proceedings]
    • Goal of Policy Overview
      • Birny Birnbaum (CEJ) - Shopping
      • ACLI - Not Shopping
    • What is a Supplemental Illustration? (Birny Birnbaum, Donna Megregian, Richard Wicka - More Complicated products would need more pages.)
    • Birny Birnbaum - Don't want to put Agent in the position of choosing what to disclose and not to disclose.
    • Birney Birnbaum - Payments/ Benefits - Mini-Illustration - Guarantees only Illustrations have Tables. (Samples of ACLI)
      • Birney Birnbaum - Policy Overview would be tailored for each person.
    • Accumulation of Cash Value
      • ACLI - YES/NO
        • People Agreed with YES/NO
      • AAA - Based on G or NGE? 
    • Birny Birnbaum - Policy Overview only applies when the consumer is shopping for the policy.
      • Michael Lovendusky (ACLI) - Whistling into the winds of change. These are Dynamic Contracts.
    • Richard Wicka - Policy Overview Currently Connected to Narrative
      • Wicka - No Response, so I guess you all agree.
  • 2018 1009 - NAIC Conference Call - LIIIWG, Life Insurance Illustrations Working Group - [Bonk: Not in NAIC Proceedings]
    • Michael Lovendusky, ACLI - Neither model was intended to generate Buying Guides or to relieve consumers of their own individual responsibilities to understand the product that they are spending their hard-earned money to buy after all. 
    • …there are examples of companies attempting to develop completely Dynamic services and policies opportunities for their customers to purchase and to elect a variety of options.
    • And that the options themselves might be changed over time, dynamically, at the will of the purchaser with perhaps his or her financial advisor.
    • And so, one must I think wonder we're actually whistling into the winds of change here by attempting to make these summaries and overviews more static and less dynamic.
  • [Policy Overview]
  • Birny Birnbaum (CEJ) - Policy Overview only applies when the consumer is shopping for the policy.
  • Michael Lovendusky, ACLI - Neither model was intended to generate Buying Guides or to relieve consumers of their own individual responsibilities to understand the product that they are spending their hard-earned money to buy after all.  
    • And what has happened most recently is that.. And indeed in the most recent development …there are examples of companies attempting to develop completely Dynamic services and policies opportunities for their customers to purchase and to elect a variety of options.
      • And that the options themselves might be changed over time, dynamically, at the will of the purchaser with perhaps his or her financial advisor. 
    • And so, one must I think wonder we're actually whistling into the winds of change here by attempting to make these summaries and overviews more static and less dynamic.

2018 1109, NAIC - LIIIWG - Life Insurance Illustrations Working Group, Conference Call, [Bonk: Not in Proceedings]

  • 2019 0830 - NAIC - LIIIWG, Life Insurance Illustrations Issues Working Group - Letter - Birny Birnbaum (CEJ) - 12p
    • re: Policy Overview - The personalized information in the Policy Overview is the premium for the policy – based on information known to the producer or insurer at the time and subject to change based on additional or revised information – and that information can be provided prior to purchase.
      • If an insurer can produce an illustration for a complex, investment type life insurance product prior to the consumer purchase, it is clearly possible for an insurer to provide the premium for a policy prior to purchase.
    • re: ACLI - For anyone following the working group 's efforts, the observer might be surprised at the blatant contradiction and abject hypocrisy shown by Mr. Lovendusky in asking the working group to ignore its charge after routinely taking up the working group's time with diatribes and false accusations against others for recommendations allegedly exceeding the working group's charge.
      • Yet, now, as the working group is finalizing its work, Mr. Lovendusky shows neither embarrassment nor shame for engaging in precisely the same offensive act of which he has accused others.1
    • re: NAIFA - Despite no participation to date in the working group’s efforts over the past four years, NAIFA decides it needs to now weigh in on the important role of agents in the life insurance sales process and that without an agent to interpret these documents for consumers, the consumers will be lost at sea.
      • Mr. Sanders’s drive-by comments to the working group are based on false assertions and misunderstanding of the working group’s efforts.
      • His comments have no relevance for the current efforts of the working group.
  • [Plan of Insurance]
  • 2019 0903 - 2019-3, NAIC Life Insurance Illustration Issues (A) Working Group (LIIIWG) - Conference Call
    • Michael Lovendusky, ACLI ...  said assisting consumers to compare products is outside the scope of the Working Group’s charge, and it would limit innovation and harm consumers.
    • Birny Birnbaum, CEJ ...  said the Working Group’s charge specifically includes how the summaries are “designed, formatted and accessed” by consumers, and the stated purpose of Model #580 is to “require insurers to deliver to purchasers of life insurance information that will improve the buyer’s ability to select the most appropriate plan of life insurance for the buyer’s needs.”
  • 2019 0903, NAIC - LIIIWG, Life Insurance Illustrations Working Group [Bonk: Not in NAIC Proceedings]
    • Michael Lovendusky, ACLI: We stood back and thought, how can we somehow deliver a respectable work product to the A Committee that will in fact meet the charge of this Working Group, which is to Improve the Readability and  Understandability of the policies that are discussed in the 2 models of the charge for this working group.
      • By aligning to the work of the Online Buyer's Guide Work Group and then the ACLI is willing to participate by advertising the Online Buyer's Guide at an earlier date.
      • We might rename the Online Buyer's Guide to the Online Consumer's Guide and get it out to consumers who have not yet bought a policy to help with the basic understanding of the different types of policies and how different features of policies might operate to the consumers interest.